Best Game with a Movie/TV License?

[grolt]

From the 32-bit generation onwards (or maybe it was just flat out post-Street Fighter: The Movie) games based on a movie franchise have had a bad stigma against them. It's of the mind that the license was obtained to try and mask what was otherwise a mediocre game.

Not true in the 8-bit era, as far as I can tell, with great games based around the Disney license (be it Castle of Illusion on the SMS, Quack Shot on the Genesis or Duck Tales on the NES) or others like Asterix, The Simpsons, Terminator, etc. But what about the games that didn't get all the press. Tom & Jerry, Jurassic Park, The Flinstones, Back to the Future, et al. Which one is your favorite? And more importantly for me, what are the other good games with movie or TV licenses?

I'm looking at my almost complete Euro collection realizing a.) that I have hardly played any Euro exclusives, and b.) there is a crap load of license games. Guide me straight, friends.

[Transatlantic Foe]

Once video games really started to kick off commercially with the 16-bits, TV/film tie-ins were little more than a money-making exercise - I don't think there was an intention to mask mediocre games, quite the opposite I'm rather of the opinion that they were just built mediocre to maximise the profits. Obvious lack of effort is synonymous with tie-in games. I struggle to think of any direct tie-ins on any platform in any era that are genuinely brilliant games with the exception of a few Star Wars games (I never really liked the Disney stuff because I've never been a fan of cutesy platformers - although Aladdin on the Mega Drive was pretty good).

There were a fair bunch of generic platformers in the 16-bit era, stuff like Stargate, Demolition Man and Judge Dredd. Not bad as such, just wildly lacking in imagination. And of course the Mega Drive version of Turrican 2 - which was given a hasty few sprite swaps and renamed Universal Soldier in the vain hope of a tie-in. I've been meaning to get True Lies and Jurassic Park for the SNES though, because they look pretty awesome.

As far as the SMS goes, the only game I have that's a tie-in is Robocop vs The Terminator (I know it's strictly a comic tie-in but it does have two movie franchises there). I have Secret Command(o) but that was just given some very minor changes to be First Blood: Part II in the US.

I also have Exo Squad for the Mega Drive, if anyone remembers that cartoon? It's a pretty neat game as well.

Other than those two, I think the only tie-in games I have are Star Wars ones. The quality is all over the place, a shame considering Lucasarts had a fine run with the 8/16-bit original trilogy games, X-Wing/TIE Fighter and Dark Forces/Jedi Knight. Then it all started to go a bit wobbly when the prequel trilogy kicked off and it suddenly became about the cash cow again - get the games out and to hell with whether they're any good or not.

[Stan]

Exo-Squad used to be my favorite TV/movie to game attempt until I played it the whole way through. Talk about TEDIOUS. That game goes on forever with a decent storyline and story art, but the gameplay is so stinking redundant.

As for the SMS, hmmm, I'd have to say The Terminator is a pretty solid game. And the version of Alien3 we got for it was pretty tight too, though I don't really like that game. For cartoon games, I always thought Krusty's Fun House (mainly just character-based obviously) was killer.

[ShadowAngel]

Dec 5, 2009 14:17:40 GMT Transatlantic Foe said:

a shame considering Lucasarts had a fine run with the 8/16-bit original trilogy games, X-Wing/TIE Fighter and Dark Forces/Jedi Knight. Then it all started to go a bit wobbly when the prequel trilogy kicked off and it suddenly became about the cash cow again - get the games out and to hell with whether they're any good or not.

Their best Movie-to-Game is still Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones' Greatest Hits on the SNES ist awesome, as is Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis or the Lego Indiana Jones Games. Only Indiana Jones Desktop Adventures stunk.

On the Master System we have Zillion. That's a great game based on a anime series (and there's also an OVA) and Zillion II isn't that bad either, though completely different than the first one.

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker isn't that bad of a game i'd say.

And of course: I still like Ghostbusters ;D

[Phil]

Home Alone for the SMS - greatest film-tie in ever.

SIMPLE